Well, it's been fun girls and boys, hasn't it?

Yes, that's right. I did it. On Sunday 22nd November at about 3:30pm...I hit 10,000 gamerscore...exactly.

First of all, I'd like to thank my good friend Zuriel147 for helping me get some co-operative achievements towards the end and also to xbox360chievements.com for their excellent achievement guides, I couldn't have done it without you two, so thanks.

Hitting the 10,000 mark triggered some interesting emotions. For one, I expected some huge firework display to explode from my console. This never happened. Humph. I must say, even though attaining 10,000 is nothing compared to some of the scores I'd seen I was proud of myself for hitting a goal that I had set myself. I've set loads of goals in the past, but I can't name any that I've hit.

One of the stipulations of my challenge was that I wasn't allowed to add any games to my collection as I was trying to raise my achievement/game ratio abover 50%, which incidentally I failed to do. This made me go through my collection and play some great games that just got better and better the more I delved into them for achievements, I realised that there was much more enjoyment to be had just by digging a little deeper into the game. Try it sometime, it really is worth it.

If there was a negative reactiong to my experience, it's the sense of unfulfillment. I expected to be jumping around my front room but I didn't feel anything much at all. Maybe it's because 10K isn't a high score in the slightest or maybe I now had nothing to aim for anymore. Strangely, I have no interest in adding anything to my collection at least until after Christmas as I've really enjoyed the journey into the exisiting games on my shelf, so I'm going to carry on as before.

The experience has taught me to never give up on a game just because you haven't been able to nail everything the first time round and you might just discover something awesome that was just sitting there, waiting to be found.

Ah well, thanks for all the support.

Here's to 20,000!

As the title suggests, we are in the final stages of my mission to hit 10,000 gamerpoints (or gamerscore, I forget which) as my current score as of today is 9640.

However, the deadline originally set by the powers that be have moved the start date of my new job to a week earlier! So, that leaves me with 360 (a coincidence, but a funny one) to get before 11pm this Sunday night. To remind everyone, here are the stipulations:

1. No new games must be added to the collection (as that reduces the achievement percentage)

2. No campaigns, unless already completed, must be attempted as attention may be detracted from game itself.

Apart from the above two, it's pretty much carte blanche to attain whatever achievement I can, however obviously I'm going to get the ones I can get the easiest. For example, there were 50G's just waiting to be had at the end of Fable II and all I had to add were a couple of saves! It's not all that easy though, as I can't tackle any campaigns, and they are often the ones that yield the most XP.

With the help of Xbox360achievements.com and Trueachievements.com tracking my every move I'm able to see just what I need (and how easy it will be to get it) with just a few clicks.

See you all on the other side!

After my last update regarding the titles I have never 'got' (starting to dislike that word but can't really find a suitable replacement so it's going to have to do for now). I received a reply from a friend of mine who gave it some pretty choice criticism to my opinions.

You've had my opinion, now here's his.

Hype, or a Case of Sour Grapes?

Alas, I have read something pretty alarming, so let's discuss it. There is a mistaken notion that when someone doesn't buy in to the "Hype," they automatically won't 'get' the game. A thought pattern that irrevocably winds up in a disenfranchised tangle of emotion, which ultimately concludes in a slamming of a future, or current ****c.

I am, of course, referring to the above article which discusses, in brief, the notion of "hype" or potentially - retrospective adoration. The author of the article in question is a pretty decent guy, I know him and have spent time with him, he can spell. He washes himself and I'm pretty sure he can wipe his own backside, the downside to him is that he's unfortunately got a habit of cross pollinating concepts, in this case, one of "hype" and one of the afore mentioned "retrospective adoration".

In his gathering of thoughts and observations, he really demands a well balanced response, he's expecting me to insult and abuse him (believe me I will, but I won't smash his opinion publicly in the usual abusive trashy way I do when we're at the pub) I won't do this in this post, that wouldn't be fair and it would devalue what he's said.

He's made a valid point, albeit in a roundabout way, but his point is valid. There is a HUGE amount of hype in modern gaming, hell we're talking about a massive industry raking in more money than the movie business. That is commanding some serious bank my friends. If you look at the actuals with regards to money – a copy of a title may cost a retailer say £20, they sell it on at £40 (on average) there's a ridiculous margin of profit involved here people. A single store may get 100 copies of a game – at £40 per copy, they may sell them all in an hour – that's £4000 folks – nearly £2000 of which is direct profit. – multiply that by 250 and you've got SERIOUS money involved. With that kind of profit you can start throwing major cash into marketing, which brings me back to the notion of hype. Is it Hype or is it marketing being referred to in the above article. Hype is an offshoot of marketing – the BUZZ is what "gamers" are actually saying about games.

Gamers only "Buzz" about games if they look like they're going to be good or they are likely to have a number of particular elements present. What are they? – they're whatever gamers are buzzing about at that particular period in time. At the moment, it's all about online multiplayer, Co-op play and the like – the community experience. Gaming is no longer the realm of the girlfriendless geek. Football fanatics, pissheads and chavs are ALL gaming – what is the world coming to?

My good friend here is ignoring a fundamental aspect that has changed over the past 20 years (Yes 20 years of mass market gaming people.) since the launch of the Megadrive and the then, soon to be huge Sonic The Hedgehog (one of the first titles to receive a huge TV marketing campaign) Gaming is now a million times more huge than it has EVER been.

So let's briefly discuss what I call "Retrospective Adoration" – Which I'm guessing is what our author friend is unabashedly taking a pop shot at, when he's discussing FFVII and Zelda and titles of old. People connect with things in different ways – because you don't get it is again an unfair point of view from which to launch an offensive on popular or beloved games – Back in the day when FFVII was released game trading was pretty rough around the edges, the notion of pre-owned was pretty far from common knowledge and certainly not the behemoth it is today. So getting hold of games was the avenue of the truly wealthy and not always a place where noobs could get into games – Our author is also ignoring many other titles that "sold" playstations at that time – Resident Evil (had a million sequels) was one such title, as was Gran Turismo (which now has a million sequels and copycats) – So his aim is solely placed on sequels in his rant and the notion of **** sequels it pretty clear in the gaming world (Toejam & Earl II anyone?). People liked Final Fantasy VII because they thought it was fun – I personally hated the bloody thing – I could never fathom the notion of turn based combat – but I understand its appeal. I don't was lyrical on it's validity – Perhaps they looked at you like that, kind sir, because you being an opinionated narrow minded goober, Like me.

Take note: The dark cloud of Introverted players slowly meandered its way into the rant very early on.

Simply labeling a title as "hyped" because you're an introverted player isn't fair. In fact it's pretty harsh. Saying I don't get the hype about this game because I don't own it and can't play it online is a rotten thing to do – super opinionated and it devalues the hard work that has been put into a title – The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series isn't simply an exercise in over hyping a game or series – it's been a project that has successfully brought to the forefront the notion of online gaming in a way only one other title has done and that was World of Warcraft. A game so hugely talked about and loved by its player's that they aired a South Park episode centered around it people. If gaming can capture the minds of contemporary artists from outside of the realm of gaming then Gaming has officially landed as a respected and valued pastime – The hype centered around Modern Warfare 2 has been pretty bad, bad news sells and bad news sells games particularly well – my god look at GTA – millions of copies sold and a tremendous amount of wasted time and headlines where the Daily Mail was trying to educate in the ways of righteousness to a nation of gamers who simply wanted to play a game. It was good. It was fun, it achieved that which games are supposed to achieve – It entertained.

Also, it entertained MILLIONS of people – it was aiming to entertain those people and it achieved its goal. As did Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare – It didn't entertain our author friend – is this a bad thing? Maybe so, as he states that he's a fan of FPS shooters – Contrary to what his Gamertag indicates having only played a very few FPS shooters on there – No CODs, no Bioshock, No Rainbow Six Vegas – hell the dude hasn't played the games, to any degree of completion – How on earth can anyone comment on avoiding the hype when they don't give it a go past I spawned and I was killed loads. Well Practice and you'll get good, then you'll start to enjoy it – this isn't Half-Life II or Halo with auto targeting, this is Modern warfare my friend – where you have to be good, or at least enjoy it when someone else is and keep having a go.

I'm a COD fanatic, and unashamed of it. I'm also not ashamed to say I'm not any good at it. Like sex, if you're crap you keep having a go until you find the right match and right combination of moves. I try and I love the fact that I can go online with my friends and share laughs about different things that happen when you play, I mean in the game, not sex obviously.

I want to start a clan, in the game that is, and have all my friends in it and play huge matches with other people, who also enjoy the game. Here's where call of Duty differs from other online experiences – it's an FPS, where you can chat to your friends, shoot EVERYONE and talk about it when you go to the pub…. And they add new maps – and you can play the campaigns with your friends. Bliss, if like me, you're crap – you can gain achievements whilst your mates get gunned down. Blood!!!! It's a community of likeminded guys who go online to have fun with no arrogant pre-disposed notion of being a "Gamer" – that narrow-minded point of view is long dead. As is the notion that any of our opinions count – as a long time friend once said to me. So step down from you pedestal as it's pretty clear why the article was written in the first place, as an attempt to upset the status quo and say something shocking – when really you're saying – I want a copy and to have a go, but I can't afford it so I'll play Fable II instead.

Yup – I been keeping tabs on what you're playing!

I assure you – an online game is only as fun as the people you play with – you play with strangers? You're never going to have that much fun. The single player campaign is pretty damend good as well – you just obviously need some practice ;P

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This is first bit of criticism I have received towards my articles and I can understand where he's coming from, however his argument is that I'm bothered about games that are over-hyped, which isn't entirely true. The aim of my blog was to go into some detail as to the games that everyone else has been into, but I haven't. Maybe I didn't get my point across as clearly as I thought I did.

What do you think now that you've seen both opinions?

If you have 'Blogger', please connect with this guy, he's a sound bloke and knows what he's talking about...and is a hell of a lot of a better writing than I am!